Captivate Your Social Media Video Audience by Using Captions

Eric English
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

I talk a lot about the importance of small businesses using video on social media — everywhere from all-video channels like YouTube and Snapchat, to Facebook and beyond — there’s nothing like video to capture attention and give you a bigger bang for your social media marketing bucks.

Now it’s time to take it one step further, and think about adding captions to your video. Not only is it an inclusive practice, for example, on YouTube where it allows the hearing impaired to enjoy your videos, but it also pays off as an attention-grabber on other platforms, too.

Take Facebook: did you know that captioned video ads on Facebook get an increased view time of 12% on average?

When you think about how you watch videos on social media, this statistic makes perfect sense. You’re scrolling your newsfeed and see a video, and if you’re like me, here’s what happens:

1) You read the captions.

2. Your interest is piqued, so you you click the video to enlarge it.

3. Once hooked, you turn up the sound or pop in your earbuds (if you’re at work =) to listen.

Facebook has made adding captions to your finished video easy … or you can embed them in your original video production if you prefer.

This aligns with how the layers of storytelling work: great stories reveal themselves — they unfold naturally, and you don’t have to force the message.

Captions capture attention, so now’s the time to start visually telling the full story on your social media videos, and make it virtually impossible to for people to resist clicking to find out what happens next.

Eric English
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